Monthly Archives: December 2010

Google has a great new tool that allows you to see how frequently a word sequence occurred in books that they have scanned as a function of time. Naturally, with my focus on reducing the risk posed by nuclear weapons, I input “nuclear weapons” and here’s what I found: Continue reading →

Today’s test of our missile defense system failed to intercept its target, making the score only 8 successes in 14 tests. That would be a failing grade on any exam, and countermeasures are likely to reduce the success rate even further in a real attack. So why do the Russians object so strenuously to our missile defense program? To understand why, consider the following excerpt from my September 2009 post Missile Defense: A Play in One Act. Continue reading →

Conflicts become significantly more dangerous when each side sees itself as the innocent victim of reckless acts by its adversary. A dangerous feedback loop develops in which bad behavior must be met with resolute force. Unfortunately, just such a hazardous situation exists on the Korean peninsula as demonstrated by the following recent reports: Continue reading →

A front page article in yesterday’s Wall Street Journal shines a spotlight on a number of overlooked, early-warning signs of the BP oil spill disaster: “In the months before and after the rig exploded … the industry was hit with several serious spills and alarming near-misses, some of them strikingly similar to what happened aboard the Deepwater Horizon.” That observation has some surprising lessons for defusing the current crisis on the Korean peninsula and averting a second – and possibly nuclear – Korean War.Continue reading →